Concepts for First-Year Writing Students

• Guidelines for Writing a Literary Critical Analysis

• Content Characteristics of the A and B Paper (based on the rubric)

• The Role of Active Reading

• Textual Event Analysis: Diving Below the Waterline

• The Trivium and “The Semiotic Iceberg”: A Paradigm for Reading and Responding to Texts

• The Trivium: Mapping Cognitive Processes

• Awesome Verbs!

 Understanding Argument & Process

• Analytical Inquiry: Some Interpretive Questions

• From “grammar” to “rhetoric”:  Claims versus Observations

• Thesis Construction

• Drafting Introductions

• Troubleshooting: Common Content Problems

• Revisiting Thesis Protocols: Revising and Questioning

• Revising Drafts

Strategies for Paragraph Construction

• Paragraphs: Structural Unity and Internal Coherence

• Two Models:

o               The 3-Ied Monster Method

o               The M.E.A.L Plan

Student Essays

• Notes on Introductions, Conclusions, and Other Essay Tips

• Revision as “Re-Seeing”: Student Models

• An Essay on Spike Lee's Malcolm X: "You Complete Me," by Jamie Scribner